Cops Seek to Protect Their iPads

The City Buys an Investigations Surveillance Vehicle

In days of yore, the best way for San Diego cops to keep track of intelligence picked up on the street was to take it down in their little white notebooks. Clearly those days are gone, as shown by the City’s plans for “up-fitting” a new Ford Redi-Van, thus turning it into a state-of-the art “Investigations Surveillance” vehicle, stuffed to the ceiling with computers, hard drives, LED monitors, and all manner of costly high-tech gadgets and spy gear.

Not just any old-fashioned computers will do. “Bidder shall provide a 17" MacBook Pro lap top computer,” says a request for proposal sent to would-be vendors.

Lest the citizenry think local cops have gone entirely soft, the proposal also calls for a “Panasonic Toughbook,” “equipped with Windows 7 operating system.” Then there are five “Patriot Xporter XT Boost 32GB Flash Drive or equivalent[s].” The document says, “This flash drive is waterproof and shockproof.” Fortunately, the device “is also compatible with Windows and Mac.”

And what’s a domestic intelligence unit without an iPad or two, or in this case “three iPad 2 or equivalent Tablets securely mounted on the driver’s side interior shelf.” For their own protection, “the iPads will be secure in hard case such as a Otter Box (black in color) or equivalent.” In addition, “There will be a separate pelican or equivalent hard plastic case to store each iPad in along with the adjustable vehicle arm mount.” For mobile web surfing, “iPads or tablets will have one year of cellular data service (Sprint preferred).”

In addition to the Apple gear, cops are seeking a few devices not usually encountered in civilian life, including a “body wire repeater” with “a quick detach (ie Velcro straps) and the backpack….accessible for easy portable deployment.” Also, “The middle long compartment on the passenger (street) side will be modified to accept a long gun rack.… The electric latch on the long gun rack will be hooked into the ignition switch of the vehicle so the latch will open when the ignition is on.”

And finally, to fake out the bad guys, “There shall be two magnetic signs that will fit on the lower panel of the driver and passenger’s side doors. The magnetic signs will read The City of San Diego with the city logo (blue strip on top and city logo) along with [the word] Equipment under the City of San Diego logo.”